Seeing the scan count in Unqode SmartQR disagree with the session count in Google Analytics for the same code isn't a bug in either tool — they're measuring genuinely different moments in the same journey, and a mismatch between them is the expected outcome, not the exception.
Reason 1 — bots and crawlers get counted differently
Unqode SmartQR logs every request that hits the redirect URL, including automated ones from bots and crawlers that follow links without a human behind them. Google Analytics filters most known bots out of its reporting, so it's normal for the raw scan count to run ahead of GA's session count.
Reason 2 — ad blockers and tracking prevention block GA, not the redirect
Google Analytics can be blocked outright by a browser extension, by iOS privacy settings, or by Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention. None of that touches Unqode SmartQR's count, because the scan is recorded at the redirect step — before the destination page, and its GA script, ever load.
Reason 3 — GA needs its script to actually finish loading
If someone scans and backs out before the destination page's JavaScript has a chance to run — a slow connection, a slow page, or just an impatient scanner — GA never records that visit as a session. Unqode SmartQR already logged the scan the instant the redirect was requested, regardless of what happens after.
Reason 4 — GA groups activity into sessions; Unqode SmartQR doesn't
GA bundles page views into sessions using a 30-minute timeout by default, so several scans close together in time can collapse into a single GA session. Unqode SmartQR counts each individual scan as its own event, with no session grouping applied.
So which number do you trust?
Use Unqode SmartQR to answer how many people scanned the code. Use Google Analytics to answer what they did on your site once they got there. They're complementary numbers answering different questions, not two attempts at the same measurement — treat a mismatch as normal rather than something to reconcile.
If the gap between the two looks unusually wide rather than just "a bit off," check that your destination page actually loads quickly on a mobile connection and that the GA tag is firing on that specific page. A slow or broken landing page is by far the most common cause of an unusually large gap — much more often than anything on the QR side.